


Home for the Ghoulidays

by Ononymous



Series: Christmas 2018 Stories and Requests [8]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 05:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17258339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ononymous/pseuds/Ononymous
Summary: The ghosts of Waterfall meet up with their extended family for a large meal. The normal dynamics of an extended family gathering play out.





	Home for the Ghoulidays

**Author's Note:**

> Original Request: Mettaton, mad dummy and napstablook all go to a big ghouliday dinner with the rest of their non-waterfall ghost family. it's a trainwreck

Among all the monsters in Mount Ebott, the group that were the slowest to move to the surface full time were the ghosts. Not that the surface held no interest for them, they travelled and worked and played there as much as any corporeal being. But when the route to your home is just a straight line regardless of where you are on the planet, the difficulties in travelling to it aren't as burdensome as they might be for your more solid neighbours. With this in mind, two such ghosts were experiencing he "denser" route to one such house, a third accompanying them without need out of politeness.

"This road's too LONG!" came a high pitched bellow of exasperation. "They need to get with the times and think of those of us with different needs!

"...it suits their needs though, I wouldn't want to impose on them," replied an echo-y lament.

"Bah, they wouldn't even bother to impose on us if you asked," snapped the first voice. "They phase so much new ideas just pass through without a second thought!"

"Now now, dears," moderated a third voice with the slightest of electronic distortions, "family is family, especially at this time of year. We always stay in touch no matter what plane of existence we're on."

"Sure, Happy..."

If you didn't know it was there, it was easy to miss. The final step of the route was a narrow rocky tunnel which was almost vertical. Still, for the erstwhile leader of the group, his body was prepared for many outcomes, and a telescopic arm pulled him along, less flexible cousin in tow, while the ghost flew as the crow wished it could fly. Emerging onto the small clearing, they found the front door of a building built to the exact and irregular shape of the nook its owners had claimed long ago. The second floor was triple the width of the first, and the third a tenth of it. The ghost glided towards the door and knocked, and wasn't long in being greeted by another ghost, slightly larger and looking in need of ironing.

"Blooky!" cried the ghost. "It's been a lifetime!"

"...hi, Uncle Inky..."

They glided through each other in lieu of a handshake. The warm reception didn't last long however.

"Happenstance," said Inky.

"Uncle Inkyrius," replied Mettaton.

"And that's... oh, Maddy. Guess you finally went and did it too..."

"Yeah, I did, mew." The human face looked ready for a fight, pink tail standing upright. "Wanna make something of it?"

"Who's that, dear?" called another voice, forestalling the quarrel.

"'Blook and his cousins, Mitty," replied Inky.

"Oh, how wonderful! Well bring them in, I want to see my adorable niblings. Oh, I can't wait to see how big Maddington's gotten."

"Yeah, well, wait and see," muttered Inky. "Wipe those feet-coverings or whatever you call them before you come in, you two, we haven't had to mop in a decade."

Mettaton and Mew Mew complied, one concealing the awkward annoyance with charm, the other with regular annoyance. Meanwhile Napstablook followed their uncle on in, and by the time the other two were able to catch up he was almost lost in a sea of bobbing sheets of a variety of pale colours. Corporeal monsters would have had trouble keeping track of where they'd gone, but both effortlessly eyed Napstablook and Inky with a pale green ghost in the middle of the action.

"...and your remixes are getting really sick, Blooky," said Mitty affectionately, "but I think they're still a little too mechanical. You need to cut loose and shove your feelings into what you compose. Remember what I taught you about tempo switching."

"...yes Aunt Mitty," said Napstablook, unmistakably pleased.

"Oh, Happy!" Mitty zoomed straight through a dozen other ghosts, most of whom had been saying hello to Mettaton while a few congregated around Inky. "I have to say, I loved your special this year. You always were a little charmer."

"Well, I learned from the best, Domitia darling," said Mettaton gracefully.

"And... Maddy, is that you?"

"Yeah," said Mew Mew, ready for a fight.

"That's an... interesting look you're going for. I won't lie, you always had the most handsome lemon sheen, but who am I to stop a young ghost looking however she likes?"

"Yeah, yeah, **YEAH!** You get it!" Two sharp canines peeked over her cheeky grin.

"Mitty honey, main course should be ready soon," said Inky, the representative of the small group muttering with each other, "can you check on it?"

"Oh, of course." She ascended vertically through the ceiling.

"Mitty made a little something solid for you, Happy," said Inky, "but we didn't know Maddy had... 'condensed' too. Might not be enough."

"Oh, food's not important," dismissed Mettaton, "we're all about family today."

"If you say so."

Mettaton made a good effort at saying so. He and Mew Mew sat at one end of a long table, a slightly charred pot roast divvied up between them, while a much more spectacular and spectral spread covered the rest of the table, the ghosts helping themselves telekinetically, Inky at the other end of the table talking to Mitty. Napstablook ate quietly in the middle of the table, where he'd been shuffled to by the crowd.

"Hey Happenstance," said their third cousin once removed whose name never made it to Mettaton's memory, "what's it like? Being like that, I mean."

"Feels like you have a place in the world," interjected Mew Mew. "That folks take you seriously."

"Really? But Inky says the family already took you seriously."

"And that's what's fabulous about this family," agreed Mettaton, "we never demean each other."

"Absolutely," called Inky, "no reason to demean anybody who never did anything ridiculous. _Maddy._ "

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all. Just let it pass right through you."

The _clunk_ of it failing to pass through Mew Mew at all was almost audible. Napstablook was quick to pick up on it. "...don't worry about it..."

"Oh, I won't. Might just let it aggravate me, though. Irritate, annoy, discomfort."

"Oh, Edgar," said Mitty loudly to a ghost four spaces from Mettaton, "how's your moss farm?"

The ghost floated in a way that felt like a shrug. "Pretty quiet for the most part. Got a new human customer though, buys it almost as fast as I can grow it."

"Delightful, Edgar," said Mettaton, "between you and Blooky, our agricultural heritage is well at hand!"

Napstablook smiled. "...oh, thanks..."

"Yeah, thanks for acting like you care," sniped Inky, "hear you're good at that."

"Inkyrius," hissed Mitty, "you're being rude..."

"Yeah", said Mew Mew, "and you're not even being rude properly! Didn't you always tell us to speak your mind?"

"Maddy dear, you don't have to-"

"No, Domitia, she's right. Why hide that I got a problem with this?"

"...Uncle Inky..."

"Got a problem with us having the nerve to make something of ourselves?!" demanded Mew Mew.

"Make a caricature of us, you mean," retorted Inky. "Going off and cow-towing to _their_ idea of respect, how things should be, instead of earning it on your own terms. At least Napstablook stayed true to himself."

"...um, I'd rather not..."

The rare noise of a fist banging on the table split the air. "I **am** being true to myself, ya bedsheet!"

"Then why can't I see through either of you? _That's_ being true to yourself."

"...I'm not sure that's fair..."

"Now Inky," said Mettaton, in the rare role of mediator, "I know you're passionate about how ghosts should act, but those ideas aren't necessarily for everyone, are they?"

"Well what would you suggest? Anarchy? Look, the occasional haunting is fine, Mitty and I certainly spooked the odd lamp when we were dating, but to hide inside... inside... THOSE. Forever? You might as well be common zombies!"

"And THERE it is!" roared Mew Mew. "Ideas so stiff you're probably more solid than I am!"

"Proper incorporeal decorum is nothing to cast aside, Maddington," said Inky.

"...um..."

"Well who the hell died and made you head honcho? I am what I am!"

"Not in that fake corpse. Honestly, I don't know why I invite you two."

"Inky!" cried Mitty.

"Dunno why I bothered to come to be debased like a piece of-"

_WUB-WUB-WUB-WUB-WUB-WUB-WUB..._

The two ends of the table converged in the middle. Napstablook put down his phone.

"...sorry. I just didn't want that to get out of hand. Uncle Inky, um, I know trying to fuse with a physical form is kinda strange to you. I don't get it myself..."

"Exactly, Blooky, you understand."

"...um, sorry. But I don't. It makes them happy. I've never seen Maddy so content since she got that body. What's wrong with that...?"

All the ghosts turned to each other and muttered, giving the appearance of an icy breeze flowing through the room.

"Look young Nap, there is an allure to it, I admit. But it's just so... _final_. Pick the wrong form, regret it, and too late, you're stuck. And you're just surrendering to corporeal expectations. I don't like it whenever one of us gives them the satisfaction."

"That's where you're wrong." Everyone looked at Mettaton. "If I felt the need to become corporeal for other's acceptance, I'd flee into the first stuffed dummy I could find. But I took my time, didn't I? I waited until I found the perfect body. Made it, even. That doesn't make me desperate, it makes me smart. It's not about accepting corporeal existence, it's about demanding the most beautiful existence, and that knows no distinction between body and spirit."

The muttering started up again, though there were hints of interested debate on the matter. Inky and Mitty looked at each other.

"...what do you say, Uncle Inky," said Napstablook, "can we work this out...?"

Inky looked directly into the shocking pink iris of his nephew.

"...no, it's still weird to me. You're still welcome round here though. Family is Family."

"That's all I need, uncle darling!"

The meal concluded on that uneasy truce, but the three cousins took their time enjoying catching up with less hardline translucentists, even performing an improvised dance routine Aunt Mitty heartily enjoyed. All the while Inky's disapproving stare bored on them, but they paid it no heed. And as the evening drew to a close, they waved a fond farewell tp their extended family.

"Well," said Mew Mew, with the air of reviewing a decent film at the cinema, "I gotta say he was much nicer about it all than last year."

"Oh yes," said Mettaton, "last time was just frightful."

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think, and thanks for reading!


End file.
